At no point during his impressive NFL (preseason) debut did Sam Darnold looked overwhelmed, lost or confused.

Despite admitting to some nerves, the Jets' rookie quarterback was in complete control throughout his two-and-a-half quarters of work, picking apart the Falcons' defense by completing 13 of 18 passes for 96 yards and a touchdown in a 17-0 win.

Given his pedigree, it stands to reason that Darnold should have entered Friday night confident. But apparently there was one strange thing that helped the rookie quarterback feel comfortable once he took the field at MetLife Stadium: the hash marks.

"The hashes are so much closer than college, so I feel like I can see the field a little bit clearer in a weird way," Darnold said. "It's really nice to be able to get that width and be able to see exactly what the coverage is. You can tell right away most of the time whether it's man or zone, which is really cool."

It's a simple, quirky distinction between the pro and college games, but it's made a world of difference to Darnold.

That's not to say that his ability to read an NFL defense - and then use that to efficiently run the Jets' West Coast offense - hasn't required plenty of preparation, though.

"One of the things I've been working on in practice is determining man and zone, one high (safety) or two high (safeties)," Darnold said. "Just those simple things that help you so much in determining what side to go to because once you can eliminate one side and just work on one side, it makes the game a lot easier."

And at times, Darnold did make the game look easy on Friday night. That was particularly true during his scoring drive, when he led the Jets on a 10-play, 64-yard crusade in the two-minute drill just before halftime.

Darnold completed his first six passes and finished 7-of-8 on that drive, including a 15-yard TD to Charles Johnson on third-and-goal.

But rather than just enjoy the glow of success, Darnold was quick to deflect the credit for an impressive first showing.

"My offensive linemen and the running backs did a great job of protecting, which I think (played) a part to it," Darnold said. "I was able to kind of scan the field a little bit longer than usual. So it was really cool to just be able to stand back there and just go about my reads how I would in practice."